Things that Happened since my Last Post

1. We have had lots and lots of wind. Our poor tree in the front yard never takes the wind well, and has lost another 4 or so large branches. It gets worse and worse every year, and now it's just pathetic. We had been wondering if we should just cut it down, and plant two new trees in the front. I think the answer was blowing in the wind my friends. In other wind news, the field trips to the park this week consisted of children almost being blown away, and otherwise being pummeled by dirt and sand.

2. Cora asked me to cut her hair, and we think it turned out pretty cute. JT saw it and said, "It kind of looks like your old hair, but it's shorter." Very astute.
3. I got my hair cut too (picture not available at this time). It's short, to my chin. I used to get highlights in my hair, but it just made my hair dry and frizzy, plus it's just too expensive to keep up with. About a year ago, or maybe less, I decided to grow all the hilights out, and just go with the new natural hilights coming in (i.e. white hairs). I was down to the last few inches of old frizzy hair at the ends, and now they're all gone. Free at last

4. I had an enrichment activity and Joe had a presidency mtg., so the kids went to the nursery they had provided for the enrichment activity. Cora was pretending to to be the queen; rightfully so, since she was the oldest one there. They were all eating cheese and crackers. Cora was trying to tell the young kids what to do, but was frustrated that they were not giving her the royal treatment she deserved. Finally she gave up and said, "Fine, I'm moving to a new kingdom, and I'm taking my cheese with me!" Love it.

5. Sicknesses and/or Wounds include the following: Alex lost another fingernail from the finger he smashed in the door on our trip. Four out of six of us are suffering from allergies (every April - thanks West Texas), and I have it the worst. Madelyn tipped over with her chair, somehow got her foot stuck in it, and gouged her toe pretty good (full recovery pending, but I don't think it's broken). Alex broke JT's glasses (that counts in this category because it wounds my wallet). And speaking of my wounded wallet, it may never recover because we all went to the dentist, and we all need a lot of work. We've already paid out more than makes me happy, and we have yet to pay enough to kill me.

6. We thouroughly enjoyed conference last weekend, and felt like all the talks were directed specifically to us. We hope that you were able to get something out of them anyway.

Baptism - Yes!....Vacation - Not so Much.

So we're back from our "vacation". My real idea of a vacation is care-free, relaxing, fun, fun, fun, and when you get back you feel refreshed and rejuvenated. A one week trip to Utah from Texas has difficulty meeting these requirements. There just isn't enough time. We didn't get to go up American Fork canyon. We didn't get to go to Temple Square. We didn't get to even see any of our friends. We didn't have enough time with any of our families. But we did have some fun, and we did get to go to the temple TWICE, and I don't want this to be a negative post, because the reason we went to Utah in the first place was to get Cora baptized, and we did, and that was the very best part. We were blessed to have most of our families there (and we missed the one's who couldn't make it). My mom and Joe's mom both gave wonderful talks, and everyone felt the spirit so strongly. We had a delicious lunch with everyone afterwards (thanks to Joe's mom). Cora was beautiful in her white dress, and it matched how beautiful she has always been on the inside. We are so proud of Cora and the amazing person she is. Cora is the most loving, caring, generous person. She always is thinking about others, and helping others, even when it means sacrificing what she wants. The older she gets, the more I enjoy and appreciate everything about her. We are so grateful to have Cora in our lives. We love you Cora!

Are We There Yet?

So, we're here in Utah for a quick vacation, which I will post about later. For now, let me tell you about the looooooong road here. The plan was to leave on Friday. I started to get sick on Tuesday - sore throat. By Wednesday I was in bed - really bad sore throat and just feeling crappy. I figured I could afford one day in bed, and it wouldn't put me too far behind in packing and cleaning. On Thursday I could barely talk, my throat hurt worse than it ever has before, and my entire body was aching. I went to the doctor. Not strep, just a virus. He gave me a bunch of medicine. To stop the pain in my throat he gave me this gel stuff. Not a liquid, but a thick gel like the kind you put in your hair to style it. I have never experienced ingesting anything so horrific. I'm sure it was partly due to the fact that I was so sick, but I actually started crying after I took that gel stuff. Nasty, horrible, bad, bad, bad. But it worked instantly. The pain in my throat was gone. And after taking 800mg of ibuprofen, I started feeling okay. This was Thursday night. By that time my house was a complete disaster, and I hadn't even gotten the suitcases out of the closet yet. I thought, well I'll just have to go full steam tomorrow so we can get out of here when Joe gets home from work. Well, that night Joe started complaining of a sore throat, and to make matters worse, I got a whole new kind of sick. I literally did not get any sleep that night because I was in the bathroom the whole night throwing up. Early Friday morning Madelyn started throwing up too. I was so sick to my stomach, and I was soooooooooo weak. I got out the suitcases and tried to start throwing clothes in them, but after only a couple of minutes I had to lie down. Joe, took a long lunch, and even though his sore throat had gotten worse, he took care of me and the kids, and started cleaning up the house. Then he left, but said he'd get off work early so that he could pick up the older kids from school and start packing and cleaning more. I didn't know how we were ever going to make it. But wouldn't you know it, about a half an hour before Joe got home, I started feeling better. By the time he got back with the kids, I was mostly done packing. Everyone pitched in cleaning up, and we actually left the house by 5:30pm on Friday, just like we had planned! What a miracle - but the story doesn't end there. The first 7 hours of the trip should have only taken us 5. Three out of our four kids got sick and threw up. Not car sick, but the sick that I had apparently infected them all with. I lost track of how many times we had to stop. After one of the times that we stopped to clean up and changed someone's clothes, Joe and I burst out laughing (because it was either that, or start crying) and we wondered what would be next. I said, "I wonder if Heavenly Father is having a little giggle at our expense right now.....'cause it's kind of rude" Anyway, we decided to drive straight through instead of getting a hotel, which maybe wasn't the smartest idea since we were both so tired. But we made it to Manti on Saturday afternoon, and no one died - but the story doesn't end there. By the time we got to Manti, Joe was really in a lot of pain. We ended up making an ER visit, and he got his own dose of that gel stuff. Also on Saturday, Alex fell on his face and got a bloody nose, fell down the stairs, and got his finger smashed in the door (and I do mean SMASHED! - I thought we were going to have to make a second ER visit). And so we come to today (Sunday), the first real day of our vacation. It has been relaxing, peaceful, and sick/accident free. It's been everything a vacation should be. So here's to the rest of our vacation, and to hoping that it's just like today. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.

School Days

JT had a field trip last week, and I tagged along. I like going on field trips with my kids; it's good one-on-one time.....in a big group:) But I also sometimes feel like I HAVE to go on field trips because I get just a little paranoid about my children coming back safely. But chaperoning field trips just makes me more paranoid because I see how unorganized they can be sometimes. Shouldn't field trips have the Most organization? I don't mean to critisize teachers here. They deserve so much more credit than they get, and I'm so grateful for all they do. But if I was a teacher, and taking a large group of children off of school property, I would make sure that my time was detailed down to the minute. None of this wandering around and deciding what you're going to do once you're already on location. Disorganization is the path to the dark side. Disorganization leads to confusion. Confusion leads to losing children. Losing children leads to fear. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate leads to suffering.

I'm sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, the field trip. JT had a field trip to the fair last week. It's all here in pictures. Cute pictures - Cute kid. He fed the animals for about two seconds, then got scared when a mini-goat jumped up on him, and he gave me the cup of carrots to feed the rest of the greedy little things. They're so cute! Sure, they smell a little, but who doesn't, right? I actually love the smell of fair grounds and farms. Mmmmmmaneur! I also love the smell of wood. That has nothing to do with this post though. So we saw all the cute animals, and the robot that's always at the fair, and we had lunch, and that was about it. Were you expecting something more? No, that was it.

This week Cora had a report due on a famous person from history. She chose Christopher Columbus. Then a couple of days later they had a Live History Museum, and all the kids had to dress up as the person they had chose. Does anybody know what Christopher Columbus looks like? No you don't. I didn't think about this at the time that Cora chose him, but I'm assuming that's why nobody else chose him. There were lots of Pocahontas, and Abe Lincoln, and Betsy Ross - that's because those are Easy Costumes. But we figured something out anyway, and it turned out not so bad. It was fun to see all the kids dressed up, like Halloween. There were some really unique costumes, and I just had to take some pictures. Should I be posting pictures of other people's children on my blog? Well, they're all disguised. I'm sure that makes it okay. It does, right?

Could this post be any longer? Yes. Is it going to be? No.

Odds and Ends

Warning: semi-gross picture below:)

1. This week started out weird when I noticed our trees are budding already. They just barely lost all their leaves in December (not in October like a normal Autumn - we have abnormal Autumns here). So now it's two months later, and they think they're ready for Spring in February (we obviously have abnormal Springs here too).

2. Things got fun when Alex's pinky fingernail got pulled all the way off. According to Madelyn, she closed the door on his hand.....on purpose (her words, not mine). We spent three hours at the clinic - about 2 hours and 45 minutes of that was in the waiting room. Nothing was broken, Alex didn't even seem to care, and he walked away from it all with just a bandaged finger. The bandage didn't stay on for long (even though I wrapped medical tape around his whole hand numerous times), and about 20 bandages later I gave up.

3. Then I experienced something I have never experienced before - A Pinewood Derby. Let me tell you, it is serious business folks! I never realized how serious little toy cars can be. I wish that I had taken some pictures of some of the amazing cars that people had built. And I'm not talking about boys. This one wasn't just the typical boy scout pinewood derby, this one was for our whole ward, with a specific division for Elders vs. High Priests. Yes, grown men with their little toy cars - spectacular:) You'll be pleased to know that we had a good showing from the Sisters as well, some of whom did quite well in the races. Well, our family decided to enter a car, so we made one. Not nearly as extraordinary as most others, but it was our first time. The kids had a good time (after the initial minor melt-down, and explanation about how we were there to have fun and not to win). And we all walked away with extremely flattering hats, and tummies full of punch and brownies.

Don't be jealous that I look so good in a truck-driver hat. Shout out to everyone who actually wears hats like this - good on ya.

4. To end the week, Alex learned how to climb out of his crib (deep sigh of resignation).

We hope your week was as copacetic:)

My Frog Prince

i Dated a lot of Frogs before you.

we Hopped and we Swam and we Floated there too -

out there in the Pond with our Lily Pads green.

Fishing around, of a few I was Keen.

some let out Croaks, some others caught Flies,

a few had big Warts, and a few seemed quite Wise.

they were all pretty Nice, and I was Okay

to pick from those Froggies and Live out my days.

and then You came along - i just never had Known,

there was a Prince out there I could have for my own.

You showed me a World much more than the Pond.
you were Everything I never knew i Wanted all along.

with You i Dived Deeper and Ripples created,

with You i Jumped Higher. i knew it was Fated

because when we First Kissed it was I who did Change,

i felt like a Princess - a Princess I remained.

you make me feel Special all of the Time.

I Love You my Frog Prince. I'm so glad you are Mine.

Happy Valentine's Day Joe!

The Look of Innocence

So I thought that drool and pancake mix were bad (see previous post) or Desitin and baby powder, but we've discovered something worse. Today Alex rubbed into the couch and carpet a mixture of Cinnamon and Vick's VapoRub - Good Times! They were both sitting out on the counter, (the cinnamon because we had cinnamon toast for breakfast, and the Vick's because Alex was stuffed up last night) so of course it's my fault for leaving those out, but COME ON! GIVE ME A BREAK ALEX! And just look at him. He's so stinkin' cute. It's his best defense mechanism.